Many modern industrial painting processes involve highly complex multi-step processes. For example, automotive, commercial vehicle, aerospace, light & heavy industrial, marine, and others require highly consistent coatings film thickness, final paint colors, visual appearance equal to expectation, cured coatings performance properties equal to specification, across large product lines and over long periods of time. This is further complicated by modern painting methods that often involve multiple layers and complex chemistry.
For example, in some conventional systems, each of the coating layers can be additive and build upon one another. Additionally, many of the layers may be polychromatic color and clear finishes. As such, it is increasingly difficult and important to ensure that each layer is consistent across the process so that the final product has the correct coating attributes. For example, a single car may be painted with multiple different layers in order to provide significant corrosion protection and create a very specific final color and effect. A significant discrepancy within any of the layers may result in a final paint color that does not meet the specifications and that does not match the other cars, or final cure film performance does not meet quality or durability specifications.
Additionally, conventional systems often require unique paint formulations for different geographic locations or regional legislative requirements in order to create coatings that have the same specifications and/or attributes. Further, in some cases, significant changes in local environmental conditions can impact the paint application process. The unique formulations and the impacts of weather present multiple problems relating to color and appearance consistency and costs. For example, as conditions change at one facility the color may drift away from the color produced by the other facilities.
Further, due to the complexity of the paint application process, it can be extremely difficult to identify what parameters need to be adjusted in order to create a final paint coating that is within the specifications. Within conventional paint systems, when a problem is identified, a specialist at the facility relies upon their own personal experience and the “art” of the paint application process to identify the potential problem. This solution is undesirable because different specialists will have different experience and different exposure to the various paint application process. As such, different specialists may respond differently to the same problem and unintentionally create further problems within the paint application process.
Accordingly, there are many problems in the art to be addressed.